Entertainment

'Doctor Who' Season Premiere Delivers Scariest Daleks Ever [REVIEW]

After an extended wait, Doctor Who kicks off its seventh season tonight on BBC America with a barn-burner of an episode, "Asylum of the Daleks."

It's a tad surprising that Steven Moffat, Doctor Who's current show runner, would begin the season with a story featuring the franchise's No. 1 monsters. While it makes sense from a crowd-pleasing (and ratings) perspective, Moffat has expressed some disdain for the fearsome killing machines that serve as the Doctor's greatest enemy.

Moffat's gone on record as saying the Daleks have been overused, that they're "the most reliably defeatable" bad guys on TV. Beyond that, his attitude toward Who's marquee villains has been clear from his writing: Over the last two seasons, the Daleks and the second-place Cybermen have been reduced to little more than cameo appearances, with their respective histories so summarily ignored that they'd be virtually unrecognizable were it not for the costumes.

"Asylum" promises both the scariest Daleks ever and the most Daleks ever seen onscreen at once. The second promise is kind of splitting hairs — the nerdiest fans will debate whether or not the Daleks shown here outnumber the Spiridon army or the armada that attacked Game Station — but it's the scary part that will have audiences talking.

The episode definitely delivers scary Daleks (rivaling even the lone soldier in Robert Shearman's masterpiece from 2005, "Dalek"), but even better, it shows us unexpected and highly unusual Daleks as well as their arguably more frightening surrogates. With these, Moffat again shows his carefree attitude toward continuity, but in this case his decisions are effective, even visceral — in a zombie-movie kind of way.

The way the show reassembles "the team" — the Doctor and companions Amy and Rory (who actually stopped traveling with the Doctor last season and are the subject of the web series "Pond Life") — is pretty slapdash, but no matter. Treating Amy and Rory as casual companions, picked up and dropped off by the Doctor at will, is something we haven't really seen — ever — in the series' history, and the show clearly intends to address the unusual arrangement head-on a few weeks from now in the pair's final adventure, filmed earlier this year in New York City.

The Doctor will get a new companion in this year's Christmas episode, the producers say. Smith is clearly playing the Doctor a little differently now that he's got two seasons under his belt, so don't expect the same-old same-old when Jenna Louise-Coleman arrives. Based on performances in the premiere, the Doctor's relationship with his future companion could be one of the most unusual.

So where does that leave the Daleks, specifically under Moffat? Changed, certainly — even more so than their laughable "iMac" relaunch two seasons ago. But you also feel the history between the Doctor and these ... these things like never before. Moffat has unleashed a lot of potential with how he ends Asylum, and it would probably be best to now leave the Daleks in the care of one of his ace writers, and get out of the way.

How did you like the episode? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Doctor Who Series 7 New York Premiere

Doctor Who Returns

Matt Smith (The Doctor) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) attended a special screening of the premiere of Doctor Who Series 7 at New York City's Ziegfeld Theater. The episode, "Asylum of the Daleks," debuts on BBC America on Sept. 1.

Promotional Art

The promotional art is based on a scene in the premiere.

Smith Ponders

Matt Smith fields questions from reporters about his third season playing the Doctor. Smith will also be the incumbent Doctor when the series celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2013.

Gillan's Last Screening

Karen Gillan's character departs halfway through the new season in an episode that features the return of the popular monster, the Weeping Angels.

Meeting the Doctor

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